The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist, the collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture.[5] One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare[6] although there is some uncertainty about whether the painting actually is of the playwright.[7]

Not all of the portraits are exceptional artistically, although there are self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British artists of note. Some, such as the group portrait of the participants in the Somerset House Conference of 1604, are important historical documents in their own right. Often, the curiosity value is greater than the artistic worth of a work, as in the case of the anamorphic portrait of Edward VI by William Scrots, Patrick Branwell Brontë's painting of his sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, or a sculpture of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in medieval costume. Portraits of living figures were allowed from 1969; in addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing selection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition.

The three people largely responsible for the founding of the National Portrait Gallery are commemorated with busts over the main entrance, at centre is Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope, with his supporters on either side, Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (to Stanhope's left) and Thomas Carlyle (to Stanhope's right). It was Stanhope who, in 1846 as a Member of Parliament (MP), first proposed the idea of a National Portrait Gallery, it was not until his third attempt, in 1856, this time from the House of Lords, that the proposal was accepted. With Queen Victoria's approval, the House of Commons set aside a sum of £2000 to establish the gallery, as well as Stanhope and Macaulay, the founder Trustees included Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere. It was the latter who donated the Chandos portrait to the nation as the gallery's first portrait. Carlyle became a trustee after the death of Ellesmere in 1857.[8]

For the first 40 years, the gallery was housed in various locations in London, the first 13 years were spent at 29 Great George Street, Westminster. There, the collection increased in size from 57 to 208 items, and the number of visitors from 5,300 to 34,500; in 1869, the collection moved to Exhibition Road and buildings managed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Following a fire in those buildings, the collection was moved in 1885, this time to the Bethnal Green Museum, this location was ultimately unsuitable due to its distance from the West End, condensation and lack of waterproofing. Following calls for a new location to be found, the government accepted an offer of funds from the philanthropist William Henry Alexander. Alexander donated £60,000 followed by another £20,000, and also chose the architect, Ewan Christian, the government provided the new site, St Martin's Place, adjacent to the National Gallery, and £16,000.[8] The buildings, faced in Portland stone, were constructed by Shillitoe & Son.[9] Both the architect, Ewan Christian, and the gallery's first director, George Scharf, died shortly before the new building was completed, the gallery opened at its new location on 4 April 1896.[8] The site has since been expanded twice, the first extension, in 1933, was funded by Lord Duveen, and resulted in the wing by architect Sir Richard Allison[10] on a site previously occupied by St George's Barracks running along Orange Street.[11]

In February 1909, a murder–suicide took place in a gallery known as the Arctic Room; in an apparently planned attack, John Tempest Dawson, aged 70, shot his 58 year–old wife, Nannie Caskie; Dawson shot her from behind with a revolver, then shot himself in the mouth, dying instantly. His wife died in hospital several hours later. Both were American nationals who had lived in Hove for around 10 years.[13] Evidence at the inquest suggested that Dawson, a wealthy and well–travelled man, was suffering from a Persecutory delusion,[14] the incident came to public attention in 2010 when the Gallery's archive was put on-line as this included a personal account of the event by James Donald Milner, then the Assistant Director of the Gallery.[15]

The second extension was funded by Sir Christopher Ondaatje and a £12m Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and was designed by London-based architects Edward Jones and Jeremy Dixon.[16] The Ondaatje Wing opened in 2000 and occupies a narrow space of land between the two 19th-century buildings of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, and is notable for its immense, two-storey escalator that takes visitors to the earliest part of the collection, the Tudor portraits.

In January 2008, the Gallery received its largest single donation to date, a £5m gift from Aston Villa Chairman and U.S. billionaire Randy Lerner.

It was announced on 15 June 2017 that the NPG has been awarded funding of £9.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards its major transformation programme Inspiring People, the Gallery’s biggest ever development.[20] The Gallery had already raised over £7m of its £35.5m target. The building works are scheduled to start in 2020,[21] the project's full title is subtitled Transforming the reach of the National Portrait Gallery[22]

On 14 July 2009, the National Portrait Gallery sent a demand letter alleging breach of copyright against an editor-user of Wikipedia, who downloaded thousands of high-resolution reproductions of public domain paintings from the NPG website, and placed them on Wikipedia's sister media repository site, Wikimedia Commons.[28][29] The Gallery's position was that it held copyright in the digital images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and that it had made a significant financial investment in creating these digital reproductions. Whereas single-file low resolution images were already available on its website, the images added to Wikimedia Commons were re-integrated from separate files after the user "found a way to get around their software and download high-resolution images without permission."[28]

In 2012, the Gallery licensed 53,000 low-resolution images under a Creative Commons licence, making them available free of charge for non–commercial use. A further 87,000 high-resolution images are available for academic use under the Gallery's own licence that invites donations in return; previously, the Gallery charged for high-resolution images.[30]

As of 2012[update], 100,000 images, around a third of the Gallery's collection, had been digitised.[30]

London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city

WC postcode area
–
The WC postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes parts of the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, London Borough of Islington, the area covered is of very high density development. The current postcode districts are relatively recent, divisions WC1 a

Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a

1.
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

Most visited museums in the United Kingdom

1.
British Museum, London

2.
Tate Modern, London

3.
National Gallery, London

4.
Natural History Museum, London

National Rail
–
The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Iden

Charing Cross railway station
–
Charing Cross railway station is a central London railway terminus on the Strand in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover, all trains are operated by Southeastern, which provides the majority of commuter and regional services to south-east London and Kent. It is connected to Charing Cross tube station o

1.
Approach tracks across the River Thames

2.
Nearing completion in 1864, showing the pre-1905 arched roof

3.
The front entrance of Charing Cross station in a 19th-century print. The Charing Cross is in front of the Charing Cross Hotel, now an Amba hotel.

London Underground
–
The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The syste

Charing Cross tube station
–
Charing Cross is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at Charing Cross station. On the Northern line it is between Embankment and Leicester

Leicester Square tube station
–
Leicester Square is a station on the London Underground, located on Charing Cross Road, a short distance to the east of Leicester Square itself. The station is on the Northern line between Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road, and the Piccadilly line between Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden and it is in Travelcard Zone 1. Like other stations o

1.
Leicester Square

Embankment tube station
–
Embankment is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, known by various names during its history. It is served by the Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines, on the Northern and Bakerloo lines, the station is between Waterloo and Charing Cross stations, on the Circle and District lines, it is between Westminster and Temple an

Art gallery
–
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand,

British people
–
British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of t

Trafalgar Square
–
Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, Spain. The site of Trafalgar Sq

1.
Trafalgar Square

2.
Trafalgar Square, 1908

3.
A 360-degree view of Trafalgar Square just over a century later, in 2009

4.
A painting by James Pollard showing the square before the erection of Nelson's Column

National Gallery (London)
–
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the century to 1900. The Gallery is a charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media. Its collection belongs to the public of the Unite

Beningbrough Hall
–
Beningbrough Hall is a large Georgian mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England, and overlooks the River Ouse. It has baroque interiors, cantilevered stairs, wood carving and central corridors which run the length of the house and it has a restaurant, shop and garden shop, and was shortlisted in 2010 for the Guardian Family

1.
Beningbrough Hall

2.
Beningbrough Hall by Morris (1880)

Yorkshire
–
Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory, Yorksh

Montacute House
–
Montacute House is a late Elizabethan mansion with garden in Montacute, South Somerset. All parts are maintained by the National Trust which subsidise entry fees and its Long Gallery, the longest in England serves as a South-West outpost of the National Portrait Gallery displaying a skilful and well-studied range of old oils and watercolours. It wa

1.
The entrance facade

2.
The window of the Great Chamber depicts the arms of families connected to the Phelips by marriage

3.
The East front: the original approach to the mansion once faced a large entrance court

Somerset
–
Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the

4.
The Avon Gorge, the historic boundary between Gloucestershire and Somerset, and also Mercia and Wessex; Somerset is to the left.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery
–
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the collections of portraits, all of which are of. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection, the gallery reopened on 1 December 2011 after being closed since April 2009 for the first comprehensive refurbishment in its history, whi

Department for Culture, Media and Sport
–
The department was also responsible for the delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and the building of a Digital Economy. The DCMS originates from the Department of National Heritage, which itself was created on 11 April 1992 out of other departments. The former Ministers for the Arts and for Sport had previously located in other d

Chandos portrait
–
The Chandos portrait is the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare. Painted between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the portrait of Shakespeare used in the First Folio in 1623. It is named after the Dukes of Chandos, who owned the painting. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London

1.
The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare

2.
Engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, on the title page of the first publication of his works, the First Folio, shows distinct similarities when compared to the oil painting

3.
An early copy of the portrait from c.1670, which may give a clearer idea of the original appearance of the beard

William Shakespeare
–
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems,

Portrait
–
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person, for this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still p

Caricature
–
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political pu

William Hogarth
–
William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustr

Joshua Reynolds
–
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon,

Somerset House
–
Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, the East Wing forms part of the adjacent Strand campus of Kings College London. In

1.
The courtyard of Somerset House, from North Wing entrance

2.
Old Somerset House, in a drawing by Jan Kip published in 1722, was a sprawling and irregular complex with wings from different periods in a mixture of styles. The buildings behind all four square gardens belong to Somerset House.

Anamorphic projection
–
Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. The word anamorphosis is derived from the Greek prefix ana‑, meaning back or again, an optical anamorphism is the visualization of a mathematical operation called an affine transformation. T

1.
Example of mirror anamorphosis

Edward VI of England
–
Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was Englands first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority, the Council was

William Scrots
–
William Scrots was a painter of the Tudor court and an exponent of the Mannerist style of painting in the Netherlands. Scrots is first heard of when appointed a court painter to Mary of Habsburg, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1537. In England, he followed Hans Holbein as Kings Painter to Henry VIII in 1546, with an annual salary of £62 10s. He cont

Victoria of the United Kingdom
–
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her G

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
–
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 185

BP Portrait Prize
–
The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award and it is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly one of the most prestigious competitions in contemporary art. The Daily Mail has called it the portraitu

1.
Gallus Gallus with Still Life and Presidents by Stuart Pearson Wright winner in 2001

Bodelwyddan Castle
–
Bodelwyddan Castle, close to the village of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, was built around 1460 by the Humphreys family of Anglesey as a manor house. Its most important association was with the Williams-Wynn family, which extended for around 200 years from 1690 and it is now a Grade II* Listed Building and is open to the public as

1.
Bodelwyddan Castle

3.
Bodelwyddan Castle Main gateway.

Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope
–
Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope FRS, was an English aristocrat, chiefly remembered for his role in the Kaspar Hauser case during the 1830s. He shared his fathers interests and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 January 1807 and was a president of the Medico-Botanical Society. He was a vice-president of the Society of Arts, like

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
–
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, his books on British history have been hailed as literary masterpieces, Macaulay held political office as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. He pla

Thomas Carlyle
–
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, a respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution, A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyles 1836 Sa

Benjamin Disraeli
–
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS was a British politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies. Disraeli is remembered for his voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader Wi

Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
–
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG, PC, known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833, was a British politician, writer, traveller and patron of the arts. Ellesmere Island, an island in Nunavut, the Canadian Arctic, was named after him. Ellesmere was the son of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife. He was born at 21 Arl

City of Westminster
–
The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough which also holds city status. It occupies much of the area of Greater London including most of the West End. It is to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it was created with the 1965 establishment of Greater L

Exhibition Road
–
Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments. The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851 which was held just inside Hyde Park at the end of the road. It forms the central feature in a known as Albertopolis. The London Goethe Institute and The Church of Jesus

Royal Horticultural Society
–
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England, as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UKs leading gardening charity and claims to be the world’s largest gardening charity, the RHS quotes its charitable purpose as The enco

1.
London flower show in Lawrence Hall

2.
RHS logo

Bethnal Green Museum
–
The V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in the East End of London is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is the United Kingdoms national museum of applied arts. The museum was founded in 1872 as the Bethnal Green Museum, the iron structure reused a prefabricated building from Albertopolis which was replaced with some early sectio

1.
V&A Museum of Childhood

2.
The official opening of the Bethnal Green Museum by the Prince of Wales in 1872.

West End of London
–
Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers much of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, while the City of London, or the Square Mile, is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city.

Ewan Christian
–
Ewan Christian was a British architect. He is most notable for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and he was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, Ewan Christian is mostly remembered today for his design of the National Portrait Gallery in St

1.
Ewan Christian, portrait in The Builder 21 May 1870

2.
The National Portrait Gallery, London, (1890–95) showing the main north front facing Charing Cross Road

3.
Ewan Christian first set up his own architectural practice in Bloomsbury Square in 1842. He moved across to this corner of the square in 1847 where Isaac D'Israeli had once lived.

4.
St. Mary's Church, Scarborough, one of Ewan Christian's first church restorations of 1848–52. He rebuilt the outer north aisle (on the left of the picture) and restored the west front (shown) to its present appearance.

National Gallery, London
–
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the century to 1900. The Gallery is a charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media. Its collection belongs to the public of the Unite

Portland stone
–
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds and it has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Pauls Cathedral

George Scharf
–
Sir George Scharf KCB was an English art critic, illustrator, and director of the National Portrait Gallery. Scharf was born at 3 St Martins Lane, London, the son of George Johann Scharf, a Bavarian miniature painter, and older brother to Henry Scharf, actor and illustrator. He was educated at University College school, and after studying under his

Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
–
Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen, known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Bt, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer, considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Joseph Duveen was British by birth, the eldest of thirteen children of Sir Joseph Joel Duveen, the Duveen Brothers firm became very successful and became involved in tradin

1.
Joseph Duveen in the 1920s

2.
The Elgin Marbles on display in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum

4.
The oldest Western panel portrait of a woman, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Photographs prove Duveen significantly altered the hair and headdress to make it look like a Pisanello of the 1440s. [citation needed] It is now catalogued as by an unknown "Franco-Flemish Master" of about 1410.

Richard Allison (architect)
–
Sir Richard John Allison was a Scottish architect. From 1889 he was associated with the government Office of Works in London, < The Science Museum, London The Duveen wing, National Portrait Gallery, London, with J G West. The Geological Museum, London The Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast, the British Ambassadors house in Diplomatstaden, Stockholm

2.
The Grand Hall at Mentmore. Aged just six months, Hannah de Rothschild laid the foundation stone for the great mansion on 31 December 1851.

4.
The dining room (3). The boiseries, or elaborately carved wood panels, were from the Hôtel de Villars, Paris, and are the first example of this type of decoration to be used in an English house. The fragments of the boiseries not used at Mentmore were later installed at Waddesdon Manor

1.
London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

2.
WC postcode area
–
The WC postcode area, also known as the London WC postcode area, is a group of postcode districts in central London, England. It includes parts of the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster, London Borough of Islington, the area covered is of very high density development. The current postcode districts are relatively recent, divisions WC1 and WC2 districts established only in 1917. Where the districts are used for other than the sorting of mail, such as use as a geographic reference and on street signs. Both the WC1 and WC2 postcode districts are part of the London post town, there are no dependent localities used in the postcode districts. The numbered districts were created in 1917, before then they had been included in the WC postal district. There has been no significant recoding of the area from 1990 to 2007. There are Post Office branches in the WC1 postcode district at Grays Inn, High Holborn, Marchmont Street and Russell Square, the Western Central District Office was located on New Oxford Street, which was a stop on the London Post Office Railway. Deliveries for WC1 and WC2 now come from Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in Farringdon Road

3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

Geographic coordinate system
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Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.

4.
National Rail
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The name and the accompanying double arrow symbol are the intellectual property of the Secretary of State for Transport. The National Rail logo was introduced by ATOC in 1999, and was used on the Great Britain public timetable for the first time in the edition valid from 26 September in that year. Rules for its use are set out in the Corporate Identity Style Guidelines published by the Rail Delivery Group, the NR title is sometimes described as a brand. As it was used by British Rail, the operator before franchising, its use also maintains continuity and public familiarity. National Rail should not be confused with Network Rail, the two networks are generally coincident where passenger services are run. Most major Network Rail lines carry traffic and some lines are freight only. About twenty privately owned operating companies, each franchised for a defined term by government. The Rail Delivery Group is the association representing the TOCs and provides core services. It also runs Rail Settlement Plan, which allocates ticket revenue to the various TOCs, and Rail Staff Travel and it does not compile the national timetable, which is the joint responsibility of the Office of Rail Regulation and Network Rail. Since the privatisation of British Rail there is no longer a single approach to design on railways in Great Britain, the look and feel of signage, liveries and marketing material is largely the preserve of the individual TOCs. However, National Rail continues to use BRs famous double-arrow symbol and it has been incorporated in the National Rail logotype and is displayed on tickets, the National Rail website and other publicity. The trademark rights to the arrow symbol remain state-owned, being vested in the Secretary of State for Transport. The double arrow was already prescribed for indicating a railway station, the lettering used in the National Rail logotype is a modified form of the typeface Sassoon Bold. It is a misconception that Rail Alphabet was also used for printed material. The British Rail typefaces of choice from 1965 were Helvetica and Univers, TOCs may use what they like, examples include Futura, Helvetica, Frutiger, Bliss, and a modified version of Precious by London Midland. Several conurbations have their own metro or tram systems, most of which are not part of National Rail, LO now also possesses some infrastructure in its own right, following the reopening of the former East London line of London Underground as the East London Railway of LO. Heathrow Express and Eurostar are also not part of the National Rail network despite sharing of stations, northern Ireland Railways were never part of British Rail, which was always confined to Great Britain, and therefore are not part of the National Rail network. National Rail services have a common ticketing structure inherited from British Rail, through tickets are available between any pair of stations on the network, and can be bought from any station ticket office

National Rail
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Young Person railcard rail ticket from Wellington to Shrewsbury
National Rail
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Child Return from East Kilbride

5.
Charing Cross railway station
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Charing Cross railway station is a central London railway terminus on the Strand in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern Main Line to Dover, all trains are operated by Southeastern, which provides the majority of commuter and regional services to south-east London and Kent. It is connected to Charing Cross tube station on the London Underground and it is one of 19 stations in the United Kingdom that are managed by Network Rail. Charing Cross is the 14th busiest station in the country, the tracks approach the station from Hungerford Bridge over the River Thames. There is an office and shopping complex above the station, known as Embankment Place, the original station building was built on the site of the Hungerford Market by the South Eastern Railway and opened on 11 January 1864. The station was designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, with a single wrought iron roof arching over the six platforms on its relatively cramped site. It is built on an arched viaduct, the level of the rails above the ground varying from 13 feet at the north-east end to 27 feet at the bridge abutment at the south-east end. A year later the Charing Cross Hotel, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opened on 15 May 1865 and gave the station an ornate frontage in the French Renaissance style. Contemporary with the Charing Cross Hotel was a replica of the Eleanor Cross in Red Mansfield stone, also designed by Edward Middleton Barry and it was based on the original 13th-century Whitehall Cross that had been demolished in 1647. Distances in London are officially measured from the site of the cross, now the statue of Charles I facing Whitehall. The condition of the cross deteriorated until it was in such a condition that it was placed on the English Heritage At Risk Register in 2008. A ten-month project to repair and restore the cross was completed in August 2010. A 77-foot length of the elegant original roof structure, comprising the two end bays at the south of the station, and part of the wall collapsed at 3,45 pm on 5 December 1905. A gang of men were employed at the time in repairing, glazing and painting the section of roof which fell. Shortly after 3,30 pm, the roof emitted a loud noise, part of the roof began to sag and the western wall began to crack. It was another 12 minutes before the collapse occurred, which enabled trains and platforms to be evacuated, the roof, girders and debris fell across four passenger trains standing in platforms 3,4,5 and 6, blocking all tracks were. The part of the wall that fell had crashed through the wall and roof of the neighbouring Royal Avenue Theatre in Northumberland Avenue. At the Board Of Trade Inquiry into the accident, expert witnesses expressed doubts about the design of the roof, consequently, the South Eastern and Chatham Railway decided not to repair the roof but to replace it

Charing Cross railway station
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Approach tracks across the River Thames
Charing Cross railway station
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Nearing completion in 1864, showing the pre-1905 arched roof
Charing Cross railway station
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The front entrance of Charing Cross station in a 19th-century print. The Charing Cross is in front of the Charing Cross Hotel, now an Amba hotel.
Charing Cross railway station
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A replica of the Eleanor Cross in Charing Cross station forecourt

6.
London Underground
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The London Underground is a public rapid transit system serving London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2015–16 carried 1.34 billion passengers, the 11 lines collectively handle approximately 4.8 million passengers a day. The system has 270 stations and 250 miles of track, despite its name, only 45% of the system is actually underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface. In addition, the Underground does not cover most southern parts of Greater London, the current operator, London Underground Limited, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London, the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Greater London. As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares, the Travelcard ticket was introduced in 1983 and Oyster, a contactless ticketing system, in 2003. Contactless card payments were introduced in 2014, the LPTB was a prominent patron of art and design, commissioning many new station buildings, posters and public artworks in a modernist style. Other famous London Underground branding includes the roundel and Johnston typeface, to prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, the worlds first underground railway, it opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. It was hailed as a success, carrying 38,000 passengers on the opening day, the Metropolitan District Railway opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to Westminster as part of a plan for an underground inner circle connecting Londons main-line termini. The Metropolitan and District railways completed the Circle line in 1884, built using the cut and this opened in 1890 with electric locomotives that hauled carriages with small opaque windows, nicknamed padded cells. The Waterloo and City Railway opened in 1898, followed by the Central London Railway in 1900, the Metropolitan Railway protested about the change of plan, but after arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted. When the Bakerloo was so named in July 1906, The Railway Magazine called it an undignified gutter title, by 1907 the District and Metropolitan Railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines. In January 1913, the UERL acquired the Central London Railway, the Bakerloo line was extended north to Queens Park to join a new electric line from Euston to Watford, but World War I delayed construction and trains reached Watford Junction in 1917. During air raids in 1915 people used the stations as shelters. An extension of the Central line west to Ealing was also delayed by the war, the Metropolitan promoted housing estates near the railway with the Metro-land brand and nine housing estates were built near stations on the line. Electrification was extended north from Harrow to Rickmansworth, and branches opened from Rickmansworth to Watford in 1925, the Piccadilly line was extended north to Cockfosters and took over District line branches to Harrow and Hounslow. In 1933, most of Londons underground railways, tramway and bus services were merged to form the London Passenger Transport Board, the Waterloo & City Railway, which was by then in the ownership of the main line Southern Railway, remained with its existing owners. In the same year that the London Passenger Transport Board was formed, in the following years, the outlying lines of the former Metropolitan Railway closed, the Brill Tramway in 1935, and the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction in 1936

7.
Charing Cross tube station
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Charing Cross is a London Underground station at Charing Cross in the City of Westminster with entrances located in Trafalgar Square and The Strand. The station is served by the Northern and Bakerloo lines and provides an interchange with the National Rail network at Charing Cross station. On the Northern line it is between Embankment and Leicester Square stations on the Charing Cross branch, and on the Bakerloo line it is between Embankment and Piccadilly Circus stations, the station is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station was served by the Jubilee line between 1979 and 1999, acting as the terminus of the line during that period. For most of the history of the Underground the name Charing Cross was associated not with this station, the Northern line and Bakerloo line parts of the station were originally opened as two separate stations and were combined when the now defunct Jubilee line platforms were opened. The constituent stations also underwent a number of changes during their history. The first part of the complex, the Bakerloo line platforms, was opened as Trafalgar Square by the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway on 10 March 1906. The Northern line platforms were opened a year later, as Charing Cross, by the Charing Cross, at its opening this station was the southern terminus of the CCE&HR which ran to two northern termini at Golders Green and Highgate tube stations. The interchange station between the BS&WR and District had been known hitherto as Charing Cross and Embankment and these names lasted only a short time, on 9 May 1915, Charing Cross was renamed Strand and for Charing Cross the tube lines adopted the District Railway name of Charing Cross. At the same time, the separate Strand station on the Great Northern, Piccadilly, the Northern line Strand station was closed on 4 June 1973 to enable the construction of the new Jubilee line platforms. These platforms were constructed between the Bakerloo line and Northern line platforms together with the long-missing below-ground interchange between two lines. In anticipation of the new station, from 4 August 1974 Charing Cross was renamed Charing Cross Embankment. The West End branch of the Northern line has been known as the Charing Cross branch since before the 1979 renaming, and this name has continued despite the change of station to which it refers. Although Charing Cross was constructed as the terminus of the Jubilee line. The tunnels were constructed beyond the station beneath the Strand as far as 143 Strand. The tunnels also extend beyond the platforms into the Overrun, each overrun has the capacity to stable a further two trains each. As the Jubilee line platforms and track are maintained by TfL for operation reasons, they can also be used by film. In 2006, it was proposed that an extension to the Docklands Light Railway from Bank station would take over the platforms, intermediate stations at Aldwych and City Thameslink would be opened, mirroring the planned route of the old Fleet line

8.
Leicester Square tube station
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Leicester Square is a station on the London Underground, located on Charing Cross Road, a short distance to the east of Leicester Square itself. The station is on the Northern line between Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road, and the Piccadilly line between Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden and it is in Travelcard Zone 1. Like other stations on the sections of the Piccadilly and Northern lines. New station entrances were constructed to a new ticket hall. As with the similar sub-surface ticket hall previously built at Piccadilly Circus this was excavated partially under the roadway, from there banks of escalators were provided down to both sets of platforms. The redundant lifts were removed but the lift shaft remains in use as a ventilation shaft hidden behind a door on the first landing of the Cranbourn street entrance stairs. The redeveloped station opened in 1935, the building, known as Transad House, was in its early years, occupied by the publishers of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack and an image of cricket stumps appears above a door way. On all four platforms, film sprockets are painted down the length and on the top and bottom of the display area. The station is featured briefly during the video sequence of the 2009 film Harry Potter. London Buses routes 14,19,24,29,38 and 176 and night routes N5, N20, N29, N38, N47, leslie Green – architect of original station building Charles Holden – architect of new ticket hall and entrances Photographic Archive. Archived from the original on 2008-03-18, archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Underground Journeys, Leicester Square, Design drawing and history, archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07

Leicester Square tube station
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Leicester Square

9.
Embankment tube station
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Embankment is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster, known by various names during its history. It is served by the Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines, on the Northern and Bakerloo lines, the station is between Waterloo and Charing Cross stations, on the Circle and District lines, it is between Westminster and Temple and is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station has two entrances, one on Victoria Embankment and the other on Villiers Street, a variety of underground and main line services have operated over the sub-surface tracks and the CCE&HR part of the station was reconstructed in the 1920s. In 2014 major work commenced to replace the 80 year old escalators, work to replace them was difficult as they supported the station structure. The station was opened on 30 May 1870 by the DR when the extended its line from Westminster to Blackfriars. The construction of the new section of the DR was planned in conjunction with the building of the Victoria Embankment and was achieved by the cut, due to its proximity to the South Eastern Railways Charing Cross station, the station was originally called Charing Cross. The DR connected to the MR at South Kensington and, although the two companies were rivals, each operated its trains over the others tracks in a joint service known as the Inner Circle. On 1 February 1872, the DR opened a branch from its station at Earls Court to connect to the West London Extension Joint Railway at Addison Road. From that date the Outer Circle service began running over the DRs tracks, the service was operated jointly by the H&CR and the DR. On 30 June 1900, the Middle Circle service was shortened to terminate at Earls Court, and, on 31 December 1908, in 1949, the Metropolitan line-operated Inner Circle route was given its own identity on the tube map as the Circle line. In 1897 the DR obtained parliamentary permission to construct a tube railway running between Gloucester Road and Mansion House beneath the sub-surface line. The new line was to be a route using electric trains to relieve congestion on the sub-surface tracks. Only one intermediate station was planned, at Charing Cross,63 feet below the sub-surface platforms, the plan was dropped in 1908. On 10 March 1906, the BS&WR opened with its deep-level platforms beneath, although an interchange was provided between the two separate railways, the BS&WR named its station differently as Embankment. On 6 April 1914, the CCE&HR opened a one stop extension south from its terminus at Charing Cross, the extension was constructed to facilitate a better interchange between the BS&WR and CCE&HR. Both lines were owned by the UERL which operated two separate and unconnected stations at the end of main line station – Trafalgar Square on the BS&WR. The CCE&HR extension was constructed as a single track running south from Charing Cross as a loop under the River Thames. A single platform was constructed on the return section of the loop

10.
Art gallery
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An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection, the term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art, however, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere. In broad terms, in North American usage, the word gallery alone often implies a private gallery, the term contemporary art gallery refers usually to a privately owned for-profit commercial gallery. These galleries are found clustered together in large urban centers. Smaller cities are home to at least one gallery, but they may also be found in towns or villages. Contemporary art galleries are open to the general public without charge, however. They usually profit by taking a portion of art sales, from 25% to 50% is typical, there are also many non-profit or collective galleries. Some galleries in cities like Tokyo charge the artists a flat rate per day, curators often create group shows that say something about a certain theme, trend in art, or group of associated artists. Galleries sometimes choose to represent artists exclusively, giving them the opportunity to show regularly, a gallerys definition can also include the artist cooperative or artist-run space, which often operates as a space with a more democratic mission and selection process. A vanity gallery is an art gallery that charges fees from artists in order to show their work, the shows are not legitimately curated and will frequently or usually include as many artists as possible. Most art professionals are able to identify them on an artists resume, University art museums and galleries constitute collections of art that are developed, owned, and maintained by all kinds of schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities. This phenomenon exists in both the West and East, making it a global practice, although largely overlooked, there are over 700 university art museums in America alone. This number, in comparison to other kinds of art museums, throughout history, large and expensive works of art have generally been commissioned by religious institutions and monarchs and been displayed in temples, churches, and palaces. Although these collections of art were private, they were made available for viewing for a portion of the public. In classical times, religious institutions began to function as a form of art gallery. Wealthy Roman collectors of engraved gems and other precious objects often donated their collections to temples and it is unclear how easy it was in practice for the public to view these items. At the Palace of Versailles, entrance was restricted to wearing the proper apparel – the appropriate accessories could be hired from shops outside

11.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century

12.
Trafalgar Square
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Trafalgar Square is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars with France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar, Spain. The site of Trafalgar Square had been a significant landmark since the 13th century, after George IV moved the mews to Buckingham Palace, the area was redeveloped by John Nash, but progress was slow after his death, and the square did not open until 1844. The 169-foot Nelsons Column at its centre is guarded by four lion statues, a number of commemorative statues and sculptures occupy the square, but the Fourth Plinth, left empty since 1840, has been host to contemporary art since 1999. The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday, the first Aldermaston March, anti-war protests, a Christmas tree has been donated to the square by Norway since 1947 and is erected for twelve days before and after Christmas Day. The square is a centre of celebrations on New Years Eve. It was well known for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early 21st century, the square contains a large central area with roadways on three sides and a terrace to the north, in front of the National Gallery. The roads around the square part of the A4, a major road running west of the City of London. The square was surrounded by a one-way traffic system, but works completed in 2003 reduced the width of the roads. At the top of the column is a statue of Horatio Nelson who commanded the British Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar, surrounding the square are the National Gallery on the north side and St Martin-in-the-Fields Church to the east. To the south west is The Mall leading towards Buckingham Palace via Admiralty Arch, while Whitehall is to the south, Charing Cross Road passes between the National Gallery and the church. London Undergrounds Charing Cross tube station on the Northern and Bakerloo lines has an exit in the square, other nearby tube stations are Embankment connecting the District, Circle, Northern and Bakerloo lines, and Leicester Square on the Northern and Piccadilly lines. London bus routes 3,6,9,11,12,13,15,23,24,29,53,87,88,91,139,159,176,453 pass through Trafalgar Square. Building work on the side of the square in the late 1950s revealed deposits from the last interglacial. Among the findings were the remains of cave lion, rhinoceros, straight-tusked elephant, the site of Trafalgar Square has been a significant location since the 13th century. During Edward Is reign, the area was the site of the Kings Mews, running north from the original Charing Cross, from the reign of Richard II to that of Henry VII, the mews was at the western end of the Strand. The name Royal Mews comes from the practice of keeping hawks here for moulting, after a fire in 1534, the mews were rebuilt as stables, and remained here until George IV moved them to Buckingham Palace. After 1732, the Kings Mews were divided into the Great Mews and the smaller Green Mews to the north by the Crown Stables and its site is occupied by the National Gallery

Trafalgar Square
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Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
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Trafalgar Square, 1908
Trafalgar Square
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A 360-degree view of Trafalgar Square just over a century later, in 2009
Trafalgar Square
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A painting by James Pollard showing the square before the erection of Nelson's Column

13.
National Gallery (London)
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The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the century to 1900. The Gallery is a charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the collection is free of charge. It is among the most visited art museums in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, after that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two-thirds of the collection. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, the present building, the third to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832 to 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, wilkinss building was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space, the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, an extension to the west by Robert Venturi, the current Director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi. The late 18th century saw the nationalisation of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe, great Britain, however, did not emulate the continental model, and the British Royal Collection remains in the sovereigns possession today. In 1777 the British government had the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, the MP John Wilkes argued for the government to buy this invaluable treasure and suggested that it be housed in a noble gallery. The twenty-five paintings from that now in the Gallery, including NG1, have arrived by a variety of routes. This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, Dulwich College, the collection opened in Britains first purpose-built public gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, in 1814. The British Institution, founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, the members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre, some resented the Institution. One of the Institutions founding members, Sir George Beaumont, Bt, in 1823 another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased John Julius Angerstein. Angerstein was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London, his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by Raphael, on 1 July 1823 George Agar Ellis, a Whig politician, proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase the collection. The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumonts offer, which came with two conditions, that the government buy Angersteins collection, and that a building was to be found

National Gallery (London)
National Gallery (London)
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Location within Central London
National Gallery (London)
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The Raising of Lazarus by Sebastiano del Piombo, from the collection of John Julius Angerstein. This became the founding collection of the National Gallery in 1824. The painting has the accession number NG1, making it officially the first painting to enter the Gallery.
National Gallery (London)
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100 Pall Mall, the home of the National Gallery from 1824 to 1834.

14.
Beningbrough Hall
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Beningbrough Hall is a large Georgian mansion near the village of Beningbrough, North Yorkshire, England, and overlooks the River Ouse. It has baroque interiors, cantilevered stairs, wood carving and central corridors which run the length of the house and it has a restaurant, shop and garden shop, and was shortlisted in 2010 for the Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award. The Hall is set in grounds and is separated from them by an example of a ha-ha to prevent sheep. Local builder William Thornton oversaw the construction, but Beningbroughs designer remains a mystery, Bourchier was High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1719-1721 and died in 1736 at the age of 52. John Bourchier followed his father as owner of Beningbrough Hall and was High Sheriff in 1749 and it then passed to Dr. Ralph Bourchier, a 71-year-old physician and from him to his daughter, Margaret, who lived there for 70 years. Today a Bourchier knot is cut into a lawn adjoining the house, after over 100 years in the Bourchiers possession, the estate passed in 1827 to the Rev. William Henry Dawnay, the future 6th Viscount Downe, a distant relative. He died in 1846 and left the house to his son, Payan. The house was neglected, prompting fears that it might have to be demolished. Lady Chesterfield died in 1957 and in June 1958 the estate was acquired by the National Trust after it had accepted by the government in lieu of death duties at a cost of £29,250. In partnership with the National Portrait Gallery the hall more than 100 18th-century portraits and has seven new interpretation galleries called Making Faces. Outside the main building there is a Victorian laundry and a garden with vegetable planting. Beningbrough Hall includes a play area, community orchard, an Italianate border. It hosts events, activity days, family art workshops, Bourchier knot a. k. a. the Granny knot National Trust page Beningbrough Hall page on National Portrait Gallery website Historic England

15.
Yorkshire
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Yorkshire, formally known as the County of York, is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Due to its size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been undertaken over time by its subdivisions. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory, Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed Gods Own County or Gods Own Country. Yorkshire Day, held on 1 August, is a celebration of the culture of Yorkshire. Yorkshire is now divided between different official regions, most of the county falls within Yorkshire and the Humber. The extreme northern part of the county falls within North East England, Small areas in the west of the historic county now form part of North West England, following boundary changes in 1974. Yorkshire or the County of York was so named as it is the shire of the city of York local /ˈjɔːk/ or Yorks Shire, York comes from the Viking name for the city, Jórvík. Shire is from Old English, scir meaning care or official charge, the shire suffix is locally pronounced /-ʃə/ shuh, or occasionally /-ʃiə/, a homophone of sheer. Early inhabitants of Yorkshire were Celts, who formed two tribes, the Brigantes and the Parisi. The Brigantes controlled territory which later became all of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the tribe controlled most of Northern England and more territory than any other Celtic tribe in England. That they had the Yorkshire area as their heartland is evident in that Isurium Brigantum was the town of their civitas under Roman rule. Six of the nine Brigantian poleis described by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the Geographia fall within the historic county, the Parisi, who controlled the area that would become the East Riding of Yorkshire, might have been related to the Parisii of Lutetia Parisiorum, Gaul. Their capital was at Petuaria, close to the Humber estuary, initially, this situation suited both the Romans and the Brigantes, who were known as the most militant tribe in Britain. Queen Cartimandua left her husband Venutius for his bearer, Vellocatus. Cartimandua, due to her relationship with the Romans, was able to keep control of the kingdom. At the second attempt, Venutius seized the kingdom, but the Romans, under general Petillius Cerialis, the fortified city of Eboracum was named as capital of Britannia Inferior and joint-capital of all Roman Britain. During the two years before the death of Emperor Septimius Severus, the Roman Empire was run from Eboracum by him, another emperor, Constantius Chlorus, died in Yorkshire during a visit in 306 AD. This saw his son Constantine the Great proclaimed emperor in the city, in the early 5th century, the Roman rule ceased with the withdrawal of the last active Roman troops

16.
Montacute House
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Montacute House is a late Elizabethan mansion with garden in Montacute, South Somerset. All parts are maintained by the National Trust which subsidise entry fees and its Long Gallery, the longest in England serves as a South-West outpost of the National Portrait Gallery displaying a skilful and well-studied range of old oils and watercolours. It was visited by 125,442 people in 2013, the house and its gardens have been a filming location for several films and a setting for television costume dramas and literary adaptations. Sir Edward Phelips descendants occupied the house until the early 20th century. Following a brief period, when the house was let to tenants, one of whom was Lord Curzon who lived at the house with his mistress, the novelist Elinor Glyn, it was acquired by the NT in 1927. Montacute House was built in about 1598 by Sir Edward Phelips, whose family had lived in the Montacute area since at least 1460, Edward Phelips was a lawyer who had been in Parliament since 1584. He was knighted in 1603 and a year later became Speaker of the House, james I appointed him Master of the Rolls and Chancellor to his son and heir Henry, Prince of Wales. Phelips remained at the hub of English political life, and his skills were employed when he became opening prosecutor during the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters. Dunster has architectural motifs similar to found at Montacute. Phelips chose as the site for his new mansion a spot close by the existing house, the date work commenced is undocumented, but is generally thought to be c. 1598/9, based on dates on a fireplace and in stained glass within the house, the date 1601, engraved above a doorcase, is considered to be the date of completion. Sir Edward Phelips died in 1614, leaving his family wealthy and landed, he was succeeded by his son, Sir Robert Phelips, Robert Phelips has the distinction of being arrested at Montacute. A staunch Protestant, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London as a result of his opposition to the Spanish Match between the Prince of Wales and a Catholic Spanish Infanta. The familys fame and notoriety were to be short-lived, subsequent generations settled down in Somerset to live the lives of county gentry, representing Somerset in Parliament and when necessary following occupations in the army and the church. This peaceful existence was jolted when the estate was inherited by William Phelips and he was responsible for the Base Court, a low service range adjoining the south side of the mansion. And the restoration of the Great Chamber, which he transformed into a library, later, he was to become insane, an addicted gambler, he was eventually incarcerated for his own good. Sadly for his family, this was after he had gambled away the family fortune, in 1875, when his son William Phelips took control of the estate, agricultural rents from what remained of the mortgaged estate were low, and the house was a drain on limited resources. Selling the family silver and art works delayed the inevitable by a few years, but in 1911 the family were forced to let the house, for a sum of £650

Montacute House
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The entrance facade
Montacute House
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The window of the Great Chamber depicts the arms of families connected to the Phelips by marriage
Montacute House
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The East front: the original approach to the mansion once faced a large entrance court
Montacute House
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Statues of the Nine Worthies in niches on the piers of the Long Gallery (upper eastern facade)

17.
Somerset
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Somerset is a county in South West England which borders Gloucestershire and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east and Devon to the south-west. It is bounded to the north and west by the Severn Estuary and its traditional border with Gloucestershire is the River Avon. Somerset is a county of rolling hills such as the Blackdown Hills, Mendip Hills, Quantock Hills and Exmoor National Park. There is evidence of occupation from Paleolithic times, and of subsequent settlement in the Roman. The county played a significant part in the consolidation of power and rise of King Alfred the Great, and later in the English Civil War, the city of Bath is famous for its substantial Georgian architecture and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Somersets name derives from Old English Sumorsǣte, short for Sumortūnsǣte, an alternative suggestion is the name derives from Seo-mere-saetan meaning settlers by the sea lakes. The Old English name is used in the motto of the county, Sumorsǣte ealle, adopted as the motto in 1911, the phrase is taken from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Somerset settlement names are mostly Anglo-Saxon in origin, but some hill names include Brittonic Celtic elements, for example, an Anglo-Saxon charter of 682 refers to Creechborough Hill as the hill the British call Cructan and we call Crychbeorh. Some modern names are Brythonic in origin, such as Tarnock, the caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Palaeolithic period, and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. Bones from Goughs Cave have been dated to 12,000 BC, examples of cave art have been found in Avelines Hole. Some caves continued to be occupied until modern times, including Wookey Hole, the Somerset Levels—specifically dry points at Glastonbury and Brent Knoll— also have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been settled by Mesolithic hunters. Travel in the area was facilitated by the construction of one of the worlds oldest known engineered roadways, the Sweet Track, the exact age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but it is believed to be Neolithic. There are numerous Iron Age hill forts, some of which, like Cadbury Castle, on the authority of the future emperor Vespasian, as part of the ongoing expansion of the Roman presence in Britain, the Second Legion Augusta invaded Somerset from the south-east in AD47. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around AD409, a variety of Roman remains have been found, including Pagans Hill Roman temple in Chew Stoke, Low Ham Roman Villa and the Roman Baths that gave their name to the city of Bath. After the Romans left, Britain was invaded by Anglo-Saxon peoples, by AD600 they had established control over much of what is now England, but Somerset was still in native British hands. The Saxon royal palace in Cheddar was used several times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, Somerset contains HM Prison Shepton Mallet, which was Englands oldest prison still in use prior to its closure in 2013, having opened in 1610. In the English Civil War Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, with key engagements being the Sieges of Taunton, in 1685 the Monmouth Rebellion was played out in Somerset and neighbouring Dorset

Somerset
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A map of the county in 1646, author unknown.
Somerset
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Flag
Somerset
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Palladian Pulteney Bridge at Bath
Somerset
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The Avon Gorge, the historic boundary between Gloucestershire and Somerset, and also Mercia and Wessex; Somerset is to the left.

18.
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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The Scottish National Portrait Gallery is an art museum on Queen Street, Edinburgh. The gallery holds the collections of portraits, all of which are of. It also holds the Scottish National Photography Collection, the gallery reopened on 1 December 2011 after being closed since April 2009 for the first comprehensive refurbishment in its history, which was carried out by Page\Park Architects. The founder of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan, formed a collection of Scottish portraits in the late 18th century, eventually John Ritchie Findlay stepped in and paid for the entire building, costing £50,000. The museum was established in 1882, before its new building was completed, the famous collection of portraits housed in the Vasari Corridor in Florence remains only accessible to the public on a limited basis. The work generally restores the gallery spaces to their layout, with areas set aside for education, the shop & café. In total the Portrait Gallery has 60% more gallery space after the changes, the cost of the refurbishment was £17.6 million. The museums collection totals some 3,000 paintings and sculptures,25,000 prints and drawings, in the 16th century most painted portraits are of royalty or the more important nobility, the oldest work in the collection is a portrait of James IV of Scotland from 1507. The gallery holds several works by Bronckhorst and his successor, Adrian Vanson, the first significant native Scot to be a portrait painter, George Jamesone only once got the chance to paint his monarch, when Charles I visited Edinburgh in 1633. The collection includes two Jamesone self-portraits and portraits of the Scottish aristocracy, as well as some imagined portraits of heroes of Scotlands past. There are three portraits by Jamesones talented pupil John Michael Wright and ten aristocratic portraits by Sir John Baptist Medina, also wearing tartan is Flora MacDonald, painted by Richard Wilson in London after her arrest for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape after the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. The museum owns the iconic portrait of Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth and his subjects include Adam Smith, James Beattie and Robert Adam. The later 19th century in Scotland had no such dominant figures, but many fine artists, and saw the beginning of photography

Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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The Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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David Hume and Adam Smith at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Scottish National Portrait Gallery
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The William Hole entrance hall frieze, 1898

19.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
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The department was also responsible for the delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and the building of a Digital Economy. The DCMS originates from the Department of National Heritage, which itself was created on 11 April 1992 out of other departments. The former Ministers for the Arts and for Sport had previously located in other departments. The DNH was renamed as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 14 July 1997, the June 2007 Cabinet reshuffle led to Tessa Jowell MP taking on the role of Paymaster General and then Minister for the Cabinet Office while remaining Minister for the Olympics. Ministerial responsibility for the Olympics was shared with Ms Jowell in the Cabinet Office, following the 2010 general election, ministerial responsibility for the Olympics returned to the Secretary of State. Although Jeremy Hunts full title was Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, on 4 September 2012, Hunt was appointed Health Secretary in a cabinet reshuffle and replaced by Maria Miller. Maria Miller later resigned due to controversy over her expenses and her replacement was announced later that day as Sajid Javid. After the 2015 general election, John Whittingdale was appointed as Secretary of State, DCMS received full responsibility for the digital economy policy, formerly jointly held with BIS, and sponsorship of the Information Commissioners Office from the Ministry of Justice. The department also gained two additional ministers, Baroness Shields and Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Whittingdale was replaced by Karen Bradley after the referendum on the UKs membership of the EU in July 2016. The Secretary of State has responsibility for the maintenance of the land, DCMS continues to make a separate small grant to the Royal Household for the maintenance of Marlborough House The Department also has responsibility for state ceremonial occasions and royal funerals. However, responsibility for the Civil List element of Head of State expenditure, DCMS organises the annual Remembrance Day Ceremony at the Cenotaph and has responsibility for providing humanitarian assistance in the event of a disaster. In the Governments response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings the department coordinated humanitarian support to the relatives of victims, the main offices are at 100 Parliament Street, occupying part of the building known as Government Offices Great George Street. The DCMS Ministers are as follows, The Permanent Secretary is Sue Owen CB, the DCMS has policy responsibility for three statutory corporations and two public broadcasting authorities. These bodies and their operation are largely independent of Government policy influence, the Museum of London transferred to the Greater London Authority from 1 April 2008. DCMS formerly sponsored eight Regional Cultural Consortiums with NDPB status, media-related policy is generally reserved to Westminster i. e. not devolved. United Kingdom budget Digital Economy Act 2010 Culture, Media and Sport Committee Official website DCMS YouTube channel

20.
Chandos portrait
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The Chandos portrait is the most famous of the portraits that may depict William Shakespeare. Painted between 1600 and 1610, it may have served as the basis for the portrait of Shakespeare used in the First Folio in 1623. It is named after the Dukes of Chandos, who owned the painting. The portrait was given to the National Portrait Gallery, London on its foundation in 1856 and it has not been possible to determine with certainty who painted the portrait, nor whether it really depicts Shakespeare. However, the National Portrait Gallery believes that it probably does depict the writer, vertue refers to Taylor as an actor and painter and as Shakespeares intimate friend. He also states that it was left to Davenant in Taylors will and that it was bought by Thomas Betterton from Davenant and then sold to the lawyer Robert Keck, a collector of Shakespeare memorabilia. After Kecks death in 1719, it passed to his daughter, and was inherited by John Nichol, nichols daughter Margaret married James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos. The painting passed through descent within the Chandos title until Richard Temple-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, Ellesmere donated it to the National Portrait Gallery. Since the man in the Chandos portrait resembles the one in the Droeshout engraving and these were probably painted in the 1660s or 1670s, within living memory of Shakespeare. The Chesterfield portrait is held by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, cooper points to the earring and the loose shirt-ties of the sitter, which were emblematic of poets. However, she acknowledges that the paintings authenticity cannot be proven. Cooper also notes that the painting has been damaged by over-cleaning and retouching. Parts are abraded and some parts have been slightly altered, the hair has been extended and the beard is longer and more pointed than when originally painted. In addition to the Chesterfield portrait, a copy was made at least as early as 1689, many 18th century images used it as a model for portrayals of Shakespeare. The painting was engraved by Gerard Vandergucht for Nicholas Rowes 1709 edition of Shakespeares works, another print was made by Jacobus Houbraken in 1747. Because the images of Shakespeare are either doubtful in provenance or lacking expression, the relatively dusky features have caused repeated comment, often of a racist nature. George Steevens said that the picture gave Shakespeare the complexion of a Jew, according to Ben Macintyre, Some Victorians recoiled at the idea that the Chandos portrait represented Shakespeare. One critic, J. Hain Friswell, insisted one cannot readily imagine our essentially English Shakespeare to have been a dark, heavy man, with a foreign expression

Chandos portrait
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The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare
Chandos portrait
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Engraved portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout, on the title page of the first publication of his works, the First Folio, shows distinct similarities when compared to the oil painting
Chandos portrait
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An early copy of the portrait from c.1670, which may give a clearer idea of the original appearance of the beard
Chandos portrait
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Portraits

21.
William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the worlds pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called Englands national poet, and the Bard of Avon and his extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright, Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children, Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a career in London as an actor, writer. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, at age 49, Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories, which are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, in his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and it was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as not of an age, but for all time. In the 20th and 21st centuries, his works have been adapted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship. His plays remain highly popular and are studied, performed. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden and he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised there on 26 April 1564. His actual date of birth unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April. This date, which can be traced back to an 18th-century scholars mistake, has proved appealing to biographers because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616 and he was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married 26-year-old Anne Hathaway, the consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. The next day, two of Hathaways neighbours posted bonds guaranteeing that no lawful claims impeded the marriage, twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried 11 August 1596, after the birth of the twins, Shakespeare left few historical traces until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. The exception is the appearance of his name in the bill of a law case before the Queens Bench court at Westminster dated Michaelmas Term 1588 and 9 October 1589

22.
Portrait
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A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person, for this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, nonetheless, many subjects, such as Akhenaten and some other Egyptian pharaohs, can be recognised by their distinctive features. The 28 surviving rather small statues of Gudea, ruler of Lagash in Sumeria between c.2144 -2124 BC, show a consistent appearance with some individuality. Some of the earliest surviving painted portraits of people who were not rulers are the Greco-Roman funeral portraits that survived in the dry climate of Egypts Fayum district. These are almost the only paintings from the world that have survived, apart from frescos, though many sculptures. Although the appearance of the figures differs considerably, they are considerably idealized, the art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. During the 4th century, the portrait began to retreat in favor of a symbol of what that person looked like. In the Europe of the Early Middle Ages representations of individuals are mostly generalized, true portraits of the outward appearance of individuals re-emerged in the late Middle Ages, in tomb monuments, donor portraits, miniatures in illuminated manuscripts and then panel paintings. Moche culture of Peru was one of the few ancient civilizations which produced portraits and these works accurately represent anatomical features in great detail. The individuals portrayed would have been recognizable without the need for other symbols or a reference to their names. The individuals portrayed were members of the elite, priests, warriors. They were represented during several stages of their lives, the faces of gods were also depicted. To date, no portraits of women have been found, there is particular emphasis on the representation of the details of headdresses, hairstyles, body adornment and face painting. One of the portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vincis painting titled Mona Lisa. What has been claimed as the worlds oldest known portrait was found in 2006 in the Vilhonneur grotto near Angoulême and is thought to be 27,000 years old. Profile view, full view, and three-quarter view, are three common designations for portraits, each referring to a particular orientation of the head of the individual depicted. Such terms would tend to have greater applicability to two-dimensional artwork such as photography, in the case of three-dimensional artwork, the viewer can usually alter their orientation to the artwork by moving around it

23.
Caricature
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A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics, Caricatures can be insulting or complimentary and can serve a political purpose or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in cartoons, while caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines. The term is derived from the Italian caricare—to charge or load, an early definition occurs in the English doctor Thomas Brownes Christian Morals, published posthumously in 1716. Expose not thy self by four-footed manners unto monstrous draughts, with the footnote, When Mens faces are drawn with resemblance to some other Animals, the Italians call it, to be drawn in Caricatura Thus, the word caricature essentially means a loaded portrait. Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, the point was to offer an impression of the original which was more striking than a portrait. Caricature took a road to its first successes in the aristocratic circles of France and Italy. These caricatures were the work of Brig. -Gen, george Townshend whose caricatures of British General James Wolfe, depicted as Deformed and crass and hideous, were drawn to amuse fellow officers. Elsewhere, two great practitioners of the art of caricature in 18th-century Britain were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray, Rowlandson was more of an artist and his work took its inspiration mostly from the public at large. Gillray was more concerned with the vicious visual satirisation of political life and they were, however, great friends and caroused together in the pubs of London. In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature, the British caricaturist Ted Harrison said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the subject with an effective caricature. Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art can be employed to make a social or political point. A caricaturist draws on the characteristics of the subject, the acquired characteristics. Sir Max Beerbohm, created and published caricatures of the men of his own time. His style of single-figure caricatures in formalized groupings was established by 1896 and his published works include Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen, The Poets Corner, and Rossetti and His Circle. He published widely in magazines of the time, and his works were exhibited regularly in London at the Carfax Gallery. George Cruikshank created political prints that attacked the family and leading politicians. He went on to create caricatures of British life for popular publications such as The Comic Almanack

24.
William Hogarth
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William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic series of pictures called modern moral subjects. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are referred to as Hogarthian. William Hogarth was born at Bartholomew Close in London to Richard Hogarth, a poor Latin school teacher and textbook writer, in his youth he was apprenticed to the engraver Ellis Gamble in Leicester Fields, where he learned to engrave trade cards and similar products. Young Hogarth also took a lively interest in the life of the metropolis and the London fairs. Around the same time, his father, who had opened an unsuccessful Latin-speaking coffee house at St Johns Gate, was imprisoned for debt in Fleet Prison for five years, Hogarth never spoke of his fathers imprisonment. Hogarth became a member of the Rose and Crown Club, with Peter Tillemans, George Vertue, Michael Dahl, by April 1720, Hogarth was an engraver in his own right, at first engraving coats of arms, shop bills, and designing plates for booksellers. In 1727, he was hired by Joshua Morris, a tapestry worker, Morris heard that he was an engraver, and no painter, and consequently declined the work when completed. Hogarth accordingly sued him for the money in the Westminster Court, in 1757 he was appointed Serjeant Painter to the King. In the bottom corner, he shows Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish figures gambling, while in the middle there is a huge machine, like a merry-go-round. At the top is a goat, written below which is Whol Ride, Other early works include The Lottery, The Mystery of Masonry brought to Light by the Gormogons, A Just View of the British Stage, some book illustrations, and the small print Masquerades and Operas. He continued that theme in 1727, with the Large Masquerade Ticket, in 1726 Hogarth prepared twelve large engravings for Samuel Butlers Hudibras. These he himself valued highly, and they are among his best book illustrations, in the following years he turned his attention to the production of small conversation pieces. One of his real low-life and real-life subjects was Sarah Malcolm who he sketched two days before her execution and he might also have printed Burlington Gate, evoked by Alexander Popes Epistle to Lord Burlington, and defending Lord Chandos, who is therein satirized. This print gave great offence, and was suppressed, however, modern authorities such as Ronald Paulson no longer attribute it to Hogarth. In 1731 Hogarth completed the earliest of his series of moral works, the collection of six scenes was entitled A Harlots Progress and appeared first as paintings before being published as engravings. The inaugural series was a success and was followed in 1735 by the sequel A Rakes Progress. The original paintings of A Harlots Progress were destroyed in the fire at Fonthill House in 1755, while A Rakes Progress is displayed in the room at Sir John Soanes Museum, London

25.
Joshua Reynolds
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Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential eighteenth-century English painter, specialising in portraits. He promoted the Grand Style in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect and he was a founder and first president of the Royal Academy of Arts, and was knighted by George III in 1769. Reynolds was born in Plympton, Devon, on 16 July 1723 the third son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds and his father had been a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, but did not send any of his sons to the university. One of his sisters was Mary Palmer, seven years his senior, author of Devonshire Dialogue, in 1740 she provided £60, half of the premium paid to Thomas Hudson the portrait-painter, for Joshuas pupilage, and nine years later advanced money for his expenses in Italy. His other siblings included Frances Reynolds and Elizabeth Johnson, as a boy, he came under the influence of Zachariah Mudge, whose Platonistic philosophy stayed with him all his life. The work that came to have the most influential impact on Reynolds was Jonathan Richardsons An Essay on the Theory of Painting, having shown an early interest in art, Reynolds was apprenticed in 1740 to the fashionable London portrait painter Thomas Hudson, who had been born in Devon. Hudson had a collection of old master drawings, including some by Guercino, although apprenticed to Hudson for four years, Reynolds only remained with him until summer 1743. Having left Hudson, Reynolds worked for some time as a portrait-painter in Plymouth Dock and he returned to London before the end of 1744, but following his fathers death in late 1745 he shared a house in Plymouth Dock with his sisters. In 1749, Reynolds met Commodore Augustus Keppel, who invited him to join HMS Centurion, of which he had command, while with the ship he visited Lisbon, Cadiz, Algiers, and Minorca. From Minorca he travelled to Livorno in Italy, and then to Rome, while in Rome he suffered a severe cold, which left him partially deaf, and, as a result, he began to carry a small ear trumpet with which he is often pictured. Reynolds travelled homeward overland via Florence, Bologna, Venice, and he was accompanied by Giuseppe Marchi, then aged about 17. Apart from a brief interlude in 1770, Marchi remained in Reynolds employment as an assistant for the rest of the artists career. Following his arrival in England in October 1752, Reynolds spent three months in Devon, before establishing himself in London, where he remained for the rest of his life. He took rooms in St Martins Lane, before moving to Great Newport Street and he achieved success rapidly, and was extremely prolific. In 1760 Reynolds moved into a house, with space to show his works and accommodate his assistants. Alongside ambitious full-length portraits, Reynolds painted large numbers of smaller works, in the late 1750s, at the height of the social season, he received five or six sitters a day, each for an hour. By 1761 Reynolds could command a fee of 80 guineas for a full-length portrait, the clothing of Reynolds sitters was usually painted either by one of his pupils, his studio assistant Giuseppe Marchi, or the specialist drapery painter Peter Toms. Lay figures were used to model the clothes and he had an excellent vantage from his house, Wick House, on Richmond Hill, and painted the view in about 1780

26.
Somerset House
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Somerset House is a large Neoclassical building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The building, originally the site of a Tudor palace, was designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776, the East Wing forms part of the adjacent Strand campus of Kings College London. In the sixteenth century, the Strand, the bank of the Thames between the City of London and the Palace of Westminster was a favoured site for the mansions of the nobility. In 1539 Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford, obtained a grant of land at Chester Place, outside Temple Bar, when his nephew the boy-king Edward VI came to the throne in 1547, Seymour became Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. Pauls Cathedral which were demolished partly at his behest as part of the ongoing Dissolution of the Monasteries and it was a two storey house built around a quadrangle with a gateway rising to three stories and was one of the earliest examples of Renaissance architecture in England. It is not known who designed the building, before it was finished, however, Somerset was overthrown, attainted by Parliament and in 1552 was executed on Tower Hill. Somerset Place then came into the possession of the Crown and his royal nephews half-sister the future Queen Elizabeth I lived there during the reign of her half-sister Queen Mary I. The process of completion and improvement was slow and costly, as late as 1598 Stow refers to it as yet unfinished. In the 17th century, the house was used as a residence by queens consort, during the reign of King James I, the building became the London residence of his wife, Anne of Denmark, and was renamed Denmark House. She commissioned a number of additions and improvements, some to designs by Inigo Jones. In particular, during the period between 1630 and 1635 he built a Chapel where Henrietta Maria of France, wife of King Charles I and this was in the care of the Capuchin Order and was on a site to the south-west of the Great Court. A small cemetery was attached and some of the tombstones are still to be built into one of the walls of a passage under the present quadrangle. Royal occupation of Somerset House was interrupted by the English Civil War and they failed to find a buyer, though a sale of the contents realised the very considerable sum of £118,000. Use was still found for it however, part of it served as an Army headquarters, General Fairfax being given official quarters there, lodgings were also provided for certain other Parliamentary notables. It was in Somerset House that Oliver Cromwells body lay in state after his death in 1658, however she returned to France in 1665 before it was finished. It was then used as a residence by Catherine of Braganza. During her time it received a certain notoriety as being, in the popular mind, Somerset House was refurbished by Sir Christopher Wren in 1685. After the Glorious Revolution in 1688, Somerset House entered on a period of decline, being used for grace

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The courtyard of Somerset House, from North Wing entrance
Somerset House
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Old Somerset House, in a drawing by Jan Kip published in 1722, was a sprawling and irregular complex with wings from different periods in a mixture of styles. The buildings behind all four square gardens belong to Somerset House.
Somerset House
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The view from the river terrace towards St Paul's Cathedral painted by Canaletto
Somerset House

27.
Anamorphic projection
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Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific vantage point to reconstitute the image. The word anamorphosis is derived from the Greek prefix ana‑, meaning back or again, an optical anamorphism is the visualization of a mathematical operation called an affine transformation. There are two types of anamorphosis, perspective and mirror. More-complex anamorphoses can be devised using distorted lenses, mirrors, or other optical transformations, examples of perspectival anamorphosis date to the early Renaissance. Examples of mirror anamorphosis were first seen in the late Renaissance, the deformed image is painted on a plane surface surrounding the mirror. By looking into the mirror, a viewer can see the image undeformed, leonardos Eye is the earliest known definitive example of perspective anamorphosis in modern times. The prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux may also use this technique, Hans Holbein the Younger is well known for incorporating an oblique anamorphic transformation into his painting The Ambassadors. In this artwork, a distorted shape lies diagonally across the bottom of the frame, viewing this from an acute angle transforms it into the plastic image of a human skull, a symbolic memento mori. During the seventeenth century, Baroque trompe loeil murals often used anamorphism to combine actual architectural elements with illusory painted elements, when a visitor views the art work from a specific location, the architecture blends with the decorative painting. The dome and vault of the Church of St. Ignazio in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo, due to neighboring monks complaining about blocked light, Pozzo was commissioned to paint the ceiling to look like the inside of a dome, instead of building a real dome. As the ceiling is flat, there is one spot where the illusion is perfect. Mirror anamorphosis emerged early in the 17th century in Italy and China and it remains uncertain whether Jesuit missionaries imported or exported the technique. Anamorphosis could be used to conceal images for privacy or personal safety, a secret portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie is painted in a distorted manner on a tray and can only be recognized when a polished cylinder is placed in the correct position. To possess such an image would have seen as treason in the aftermath of the 1746 Battle of Culloden. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, anamorphic images had come to be used more as childrens games than fine art, in the twentieth century, some artists wanted to renew the technique of anamorphosis. Marcel Duchamp was interested in anamorphosis, and some of his installations are visual paraphrases of anamorphoses, Jan Dibbets conceptual works, the so-called perspective corrections are examples of linear anamorphoses. In the late century, mirror anamorphosis was revived as childrens toys. Beginning in 1967, Dutch artist Jan Dibbets based a series of photographic work titled Perspective Corrections on the distortion of reality through perspective anamorphosis

28.
Edward VI of England
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Edward VI was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was Englands first monarch to be raised as a Protestant. During his reign, the realm was governed by a Regency Council because he never reached his majority, the Council was first led by his uncle Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and then by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick, from 1551 Duke of Northumberland. Edwards reign was marked by problems and social unrest that, in 1549, erupted into riot. An expensive war with Scotland, at first successful, ended with military withdrawal from Scotland as well as Boulogne-sur-Mer in exchange for peace, the transformation of the Church into a recognisably Protestant body also occurred under Edward, who took great interest in religious matters. Although his father, Henry VIII, had severed the link between the Church of England and Rome, Henry VIII had never permitted the renunciation of Catholic doctrine or ceremony. The architect of these reforms was Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, in February 1553, at age 15, Edward fell ill. When his sickness was discovered to be terminal, he and his Council drew up a Devise for the Succession, Edward named his first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. This decision was disputed following Edwards death, and Jane was deposed by Mary nine days after becoming queen, during her reign, Mary reversed Edwards Protestant reforms, which nonetheless became the basis of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement of 1559. Edward was born on 12 October 1537 in his mothers room inside Hampton Court Palace and he was the son of King Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour. Throughout the realm, the people greeted the birth of a male heir, te Deums were sung in churches, bonfires lit, and their was shott at the Tower that night above two thousand gonnes. The Queen, however, fell ill on 23 October from presumed postnatal complications, Henry VIII wrote to Francis I of France that Divine Providence. Hath mingled my joy with bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness, Edward was a healthy baby who suckled strongly from the outset. His father was delighted with him, in May 1538, Henry was observed dallying with him in his arms, and so holding him in a window to the sight and great comfort of the people. That September, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Audley, reported Edwards rapid growth and vigour, the tradition that Edward VI was a sickly boy has been challenged by more recent historians. At the age of four, he fell ill with a quartan fever. Edward was initially placed in the care of Margaret Bryan, lady mistress of the princes household and she was succeeded by Blanche Herbert, Lady Troy. Until the age of six, Edward was brought up, as he put it later in his Chronicle, the formal royal household established around Edward was, at first, under Sir William Sidney, and later Sir Richard Page, stepfather of Edward Seymours wife, Anne Stanhope

Edward VI of England
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Edward VI, by William Scrots, c. 1550
Edward VI of England
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Prince Edward in 1539, by Hans Holbein the Younger. He holds a golden rattle that resembles a sceptre; and the Latin inscription urges him to equal or surpass his father.
Edward VI of England
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Edward as Prince of Wales, 1546. He wears the Prince of Wales's feathers and crown on the pendant jewel.
Edward VI of England
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The badge of Prince Edward, from John Leland 's Genethliacon illustrissimi Eaduerdi principis Cambriae (1543).

29.
William Scrots
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William Scrots was a painter of the Tudor court and an exponent of the Mannerist style of painting in the Netherlands. Scrots is first heard of when appointed a court painter to Mary of Habsburg, Regent of the Netherlands, in 1537. In England, he followed Hans Holbein as Kings Painter to Henry VIII in 1546, with an annual salary of £62 10s. He continued in this role during the reign of the boy king Edward VI and his salary was stopped on Edwards death in 1553, after which it is not known what became of him, though it is presumed he left England. Little more is known of Scrots other than that his paintings showed an interest in ingenious techniques, Scrots also painted an anamorphic profile of Edward VI, distorted so that it is impossible to view it normally except from a special angle to the side. This optical trick is similar to that used by Holbein in his painting The Ambassadors and in portraits of Francis I. Later, when the painting was exhibited at Whitehall Palace in the winter of 1591–92, it created a sensation, in particular, Scrots seems to have helped popularise the full-length portrait at the same time as it became fashionable on the continent. Scrotss portrait of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, takes a different approach to portraiture from that previously adopted by Holbein. This, especially in the enframing architectural statuary, is in the Mannerist style that had originated in Florence and then spread to the France of Francis I and it exhibits the elongation of the figure typical of the style. The artist depicts the earl dressed in fantastically ornamented clothing and surrounds him with architectural details and these may relate to the only large-scale Mannerist project in England, then nearing completion, Nonsuch Palace in Surrey. The painting set a new fashion for English portraiture, the earl was executed in 1547 on suspicion of treason, some of the evidence brought against him was that he had made inappropriate use of the Royal Arms of England, as indeed he does here. He was of royal descent, but these were not his personal arms, a heraldic drawing was produced in evidence, but this painting does not seem to have been mentioned at his trial. Hearn, Karen, ed. Dynasties, Painting in Tudor, time-Fetishes, The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Sessions, William A. Henry Howard, the Poet Earl of Surrey, strong, Roy, The English Icon, Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture,1969, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London Waterhouse, Ellis. New Haven, Yale University Press/Pelican History of Art,1994 edition,19 Painting by or after William Scrots at the Art UK site

30.
Victoria of the United Kingdom
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive

31.
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. Albert died at the young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victorias death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Alberts future wife, Victoria, was earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, in 1825, Alberts great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Alberts father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg, Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and she presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economics, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding and his tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel. By 1836, the idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, had arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, at this time, Victoria was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, the son of King George III, had died when she was a baby. Her mother the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Alberts father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victorias mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange. Victoria was well aware of the matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. Alexander, on the hand, she described as very plain. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me and he possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy

32.
BP Portrait Prize
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The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award and it is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly one of the most prestigious competitions in contemporary art. The Daily Mail has called it the portraiture Oscars, british Petroleum took over sponsorship of the competition in 1989 from John Player & Sons, a tobacco company which had sponsored it from its inception in 1980, and has sponsored it since. The presence of both sponsors has triggered protests, with the group Art Not Oil being responsible for most of those against BP, the exhibition opens in June each year and runs until September. In the early years of the century, the prize went up from £5,000, in 1993, Tom Hallifax was used to advertise the awards. In 2012 the competition received 2,187 entries from 74 countries of which 55 paintings were selected to be exhibited,198019811982 – Humphrey Ocean 1983 – Michael R. The successful applicants work is exhibited at the Portrait Gallery the following year, country of each artists project shown in brackets below. co. uk, National Portrait Award thesundaytimes. co. uk, National Portrait Award Art Not Oil

BP Portrait Prize
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Gallus Gallus with Still Life and Presidents by Stuart Pearson Wright winner in 2001

33.
Bodelwyddan Castle
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Bodelwyddan Castle, close to the village of Bodelwyddan, near Rhyl, Denbighshire in Wales, was built around 1460 by the Humphreys family of Anglesey as a manor house. Its most important association was with the Williams-Wynn family, which extended for around 200 years from 1690 and it is now a Grade II* Listed Building and is open to the public as a historic house museum. The castle was bought from the Humphreys by Sir William Williams, the castle which stands today was reconstructed between 1830 and 1832 by Sir John Hay Williams, who employed the architects Joseph Hansom and Edward Welch to refurbish and extend the house. The Williams family fortunes started to decline in the 1850s, due to the loss of the source of income for the estate. The castle has been described as one of Hansoms most ambitious projects, being wildly dramatic, at the same time works were carried out to construct an estate wall and formal gardens. During this time, the grounds of the estate were used by soldiers based at the nearby Kinmel Camp for trench warfare training, traces of these trenches can still be seen. By 1920, the cost of maintaining the castle and estate had grown too burdensome, and the Williams-Wynn family leased Bodelwyddan to Lowther College, the school was formed in 1896 at Lytham St. Annes in Lancashire, by Mrs Florence Morris. Lowther College purchased the property five years later, in 1925, the school is thought to be one of the first private schools for girls to have its own swimming pool. It also had a golf course. The Lowther College Tableaux were well regarded within the community for their musical excellence, the school closed in 1982 due to financial problems. In the 1980s, the site was bought by Clwyd County Council with the aim of developing the castle as a visitor attraction. Partnerships were formed with the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts, in order to house these items, the interior of the castle was restored by Roderick Gradidge, an expert on Victorian architecture. Part of the site was leased to the Rank Organisation in 1994 for development into a hotel, Bodelwyddan Castle Hotel, and is now run by Warners. The historic house and grounds are not part of the hotel but are managed by Bodelwyddan Castle Trust, an independent registered charity, the castles association with the National Portrait Gallery came to an end in 2017 after its funding was cut by Denbighshire County Council. The castle is set within an area of parkland, and formal gardens. List of castles in Wales Castles in Great Britain and Ireland List of gardens in Wales Foister, the National Portrait Gallery at Bodelwyddan Castle. Hubbard, E. Buildings of Wales, Clwyd, Bodelwyddan Castle – official site Photos National Portrait Gallery

34.
Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope
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Philip Henry Stanhope, 4th Earl Stanhope FRS, was an English aristocrat, chiefly remembered for his role in the Kaspar Hauser case during the 1830s. He shared his fathers interests and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 8 January 1807 and was a president of the Medico-Botanical Society. He was a vice-president of the Society of Arts, like other members of his gifted family, notably his half-sister Lady Hester Stanhope, he is usually portrayed as a somewhat eccentric character. Having studied in Germany, he travelled extensively in Europe, which brought him contact with various princely courts. In contrast to some accounts, which suggest that he lived beyond his means, it appears that he remained wealthy, the plan was that Philip would agree to his fathers terminating the entail on the estates. The biography implies that the Earl would then have sold the estates and sent the money overseas, Hester helped her brother escape and her letters, quoted in the Life, record that William Pitt the Younger and others rejoiced over what she had done. Furthermore, Hauser was found with a cut wound in 1829 and this led to various rumours that he might be of princely parentage but also suspicions that he was an impostor. Stanhope first met Hauser in 1831 and soon felt a strong affection for the man, indeed, their relationship could have had homo-erotic undertones. Hausers custodian, Baron von Tucher, criticised Stanhopes pedagogically wrong behaviour towards Hauser, now Stanhope, in December 1831, became Hausers foster-father and transferred him to the care of a schoolmaster. In January 1832, he returned to England from where he continued to communicate by letter with his fosterling and also with officials examining the case. Stanhope had favoured the theory that Hauser stemmed from Hungarian magnates but had to give up this idea when he was informed that further inquiries in Hungary had, once more, failed completely. In a letter to the Bavarian court president Anselm von Feuerbach, while he continued to pay for his fosterlings living expenses, he never made good on his promise that he would take him to England and his letters to Hauser became less affectionate. Hauser did realise this change of mood, on 14 December 1833, Hauser came home with a deep wound in his chest and claimed to have been stabbed by a stranger. Although Stanhope had long stopped believing in Hausers tales, he at first was of opinion that Hauser had indeed been murdered, Stanhope, indeed, was attacked by followers of Hauser, and even accused of contriving his death. They suggested that Hauser was a prince of Baden and was murdered for political reasons. Professional historians defended Lord Stanhope as a seeker of truth and as a deceived philanthropist who had realised his delusion, anthroposophist author Johannes Mayer repeated the accusations against Stanhope, but he completely failed to prove them. Catherine Lucy Smith, daughter of Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington, secondly in 1854 to Harry Powlett, 4th Duke of Cleveland, youngest son of the 1st Duke of Cleveland. Stokes, Winifred & Thorne, R. G. biography of Stanhope, Philip Henry, mahon, published in History of Parliament, House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Jg

35.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
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Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer, his books on British history have been hailed as literary masterpieces, Macaulay held political office as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. He played a role in introducing English and western concepts to education in India. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools. In his view, Macaulay divided the world into civilised nations and barbarism and he was wedded to the Idea of Progress, especially in terms of the liberal freedoms. He opposed radicalism while idealising historic British culture and traditions, Macaulay was the son of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish Highlander, who became a colonial governor and abolitionist, and Selina Mills of Bristol, a former pupil of Hannah More. They named their first child after his uncle Thomas Babington, a Leicestershire landowner and politician, Thomas Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England, where he was noted as a child prodigy. As a toddler, gazing out of the window from his cot at the chimneys of a local factory and he was educated at a private school in Hertfordshire and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Whilst at Cambridge he wrote poetry and won several prizes. In 1825 he published a prominent essay on Milton in the Edinburgh Review and he studied law and in 1826 he was called to the bar but showed more interest in a political than a legal career. Macaulay, who never married and had no children, was rumoured to have fallen in love with Maria Kinnaird. But in fact, Macaulays strongest emotional ties were to his youngest sisters, Margaret who died while he was in India, as Hannah grew older, he formed the same close attachment to Hannahs daughter Margaret, whom he called Baba. Macaulay retained a passionate interest in literature throughout his life. He likely had an eidetic memory, while in India, he read every ancient Greek and Roman work that was available to him. In his letters, he describes reading the Aeneid whilst on vacation in Malvern in 1851 and he also taught himself German, Dutch, and Spanish, and remained fluent in French. In 1830 the Marquess of Lansdowne invited Macaulay to become Member of Parliament for the borough of Calne. His maiden speech was in favour of abolishing the civil disabilities of the Jews in the UK, Macaulay made his name with a series of speeches in favour of parliamentary reform. After the Great Reform Act of 1832 was passed, he became MP for Leeds, in the Reform, Calnes representation was reduced from two to one, Leeds had never been represented before, but now had two members

36.
Thomas Carlyle
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Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher. Considered one of the most important social commentators of his time, a respected historian, his 1837 book The French Revolution, A History was the inspiration for Charles Dickens 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities, and remains popular today. Carlyles 1836 Sartor Resartus is a philosophical novel. A great polemicist, Carlyle coined the term the dismal science for economics and he also wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, and his Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question remains controversial. Once a Christian, Carlyle lost his faith while attending the University of Edinburgh, in mathematics, he is known for the Carlyle circle, a method used in quadratic equations and for developing ruler-and-compass constructions of regular polygons. Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan in Dumfriesshire and his parents determinedly afforded him an education at Annan Academy, Annan, where he was bullied and tormented so much that he left after three years. His father was a member of the Burgher secession church, in early life, his familys strong Calvinist beliefs powerfully influenced the young man. After attending the University of Edinburgh, Carlyle became a teacher, first in Annan and then in Kirkcaldy. His prose style, famously cranky and occasionally savage, helped cement an air of irascibility, Carlyles thinking became heavily influenced by German idealism, in particular the work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte. He established himself as an expert on German literature in a series of essays for Frasers Magazine and he also wrote a Life of Schiller. In 1826, Thomas Carlyle married fellow intellectual Jane Baillie Welsh, in 1827, he applied for the Chair of Moral Philosophy at St Andrews University but was not appointed. A residence provided by Janes estate was a house on Craigenputtock and he often wrote about his life at Craigenputtock – in particular, It is certain that for living and thinking in I have never since found in the world a place so favourable. Here Carlyle wrote some of his most distinguished essays, and began a friendship with the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. In 1831, the Carlyles moved to London, settling initially in lodgings at 4 Ampton Street, in 1834, they moved to 5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, which has since been preserved as a museum to Carlyles memory. He became known as the Sage of Chelsea, and a member of a circle which included the essayists Leigh Hunt. Here Carlyle wrote The French Revolution, A History, a study concentrating both on the oppression of the poor of France and on the horrors of the mob unleashed. By 1821, Carlyle abandoned the clergy as a career and focused on making a life as a writer and his first fiction was Cruthers and Jonson, one of several abortive attempts at writing a novel. Following his work on a translation of Goethes Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship, he came to distrust the form of the realistic novel and so worked on developing a new form of fiction

37.
Benjamin Disraeli
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Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS was a British politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies. Disraeli is remembered for his voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone. He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and he is the only British Prime Minister of Jewish birth. Disraeli was born in Bloomsbury, then part of Middlesex and his father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue, young Benjamin became an Anglican at the age of 12. After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837, in 1846 the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel split the party over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which involved ending the tariff on imported grain. Disraeli clashed with Peel in the Commons, Disraeli became a major figure in the party. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s and he also forged a bitter rivalry with Gladstone of the Liberal Party. Upon Derbys retirement in 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister briefly before losing that years election and he returned to opposition, before leading the party to a majority in the 1874 election. He maintained a friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 created him Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraelis second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire, Disraeli arranged for the British to purchase a major interest in the Suez Canal Company. This diplomatic victory over Russia established Disraeli as one of Europes leading statesmen, World events thereafter moved against the Conservatives. Controversial wars in Afghanistan and South Africa undermined his public support and he angered British farmers by refusing to reinstitute the Corn Laws in response to poor harvests and cheap imported grain. With Gladstone conducting a speaking campaign, his Liberals bested Disraelis Conservatives in the 1880 election. In his final months, Disraeli led the Conservatives in opposition and he had throughout his career written novels, beginning in 1826, and he published his last completed novel, Endymion, shortly before he died at the age of 76. Disraeli was born on 21 December 1804 at 6 Kings Road, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, London, the child and eldest son of Isaac DIsraeli, a literary critic and historian. The family was of Sephardic Jewish Italian mercantile background, All Disraelis grandparents and great grandparents were born in Italy, Isaacs father, Benjamin, moved to England from Venice in 1748. Disraelis siblings were Sarah, Naphtali, Ralph, and James and he was close to his sister, and on affectionate but more distant terms with his surviving brothers

38.
Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
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Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere KG, PC, known as Lord Francis Leveson-Gower until 1833, was a British politician, writer, traveller and patron of the arts. Ellesmere Island, an island in Nunavut, the Canadian Arctic, was named after him. Ellesmere was the son of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife. He was born at 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly, London, on 1 January 1800, Egerton entered Parliament in 1822 as member for the pocket borough of Bletchingley in Surrey, a seat he held until 1826. He afterwards sat for Sutherland between 1826 and 1831, and for South Lancashire between 1835 and 1846. Appointed a Lord of the Treasury in 1827, he held the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1828 till July 1830, when he became Secretary at War for a short time during the last Tory ministry. In 1833 he assumed, by Royal Licence, the surname of Egerton, having succeeded on the death of his father to the estates which the latter inherited from the Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. In 1846 he was raised to the peerage as Earl of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the County of Salop, with the subsidiary title Viscount Brackley, Ellesmere was a member of the Canterbury Association from 27 March 1848. In 1849, the surveyor of the Canterbury Association, Joseph Thomas. Ellesmeres claims to remembrance are founded chiefly on his services to literature, in 1839 he visited the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. His impressions of travel were recorded in Mediterranean Sketches and in the notes to a poem entitled The Pilgrimage and he published several other works in prose and verse. His literary reputation secured for him the position of rector of the University of Aberdeen in 1841, a singular exception to the artistic and literary character of Ellesmeres writing efforts lay in the field of military theory. Ellesmere, as a protegé of the Duke of Wellington, became interested in the historical writings of the Prussian military theorist General Carl von Clausewitz. He was involved in the discussion that ultimately compelled Wellington to write an essay in response to Clausewitzs study of the Waterloo campaign of 1815, Ellesmere himself anonymously published a translation of Clausewitzs The Campaign of 1812 in Russia, a subject in which Wellington was also deeply interested. Lord Ellesmere was a munificent and yet discriminating patron of artists, to the collection of pictures which he inherited from his great-uncle, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, he made numerous additions, and he built a gallery to which the public were allowed free access. Lord Ellesmere served as president of the Royal Geographical Society and as president of the Royal Asiatic Society and he also initiated the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, by donating the Chandos portrait of Shakespeare. On 18 June 1822, he married Harriet Catherine Greville, a great-great-granddaughter of the 5th Baron Brooke, the family lived at Hatchford Park, Cobham, Surrey, where Lady Ellesmere laid out the gardens. Her mother, Lady Charlotte Greville died at Hatchford Park on 28 July 1862, Francis died on 18 February 1857 at his London home, Bridgwater House, St. James Park, and was succeeded by his first son, George

Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere
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Portrait of the Earl of Ellesmere by Edwin Longsden Long

39.
City of Westminster
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The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough which also holds city status. It occupies much of the area of Greater London including most of the West End. It is to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and it was created with the 1965 establishment of Greater London. Upon creation, Westminster was awarded city status, which had previously held by the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. Aside from a number of parks and open spaces, the population density of the district is high. Many sites commonly associated with London are in the borough, including St. Jamess Palace, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, much of the borough is residential, and in 2008 it was estimated to have a population of 236,000. The local authority is Westminster City Council, the current Westminster coat of arms were given to the city by an official grant on September 2,1964. Westminster had other arms before, which had an identical to the chief in the present arms. The symbols in the two thirds of the shield stand for former municipalities now merged with the city, Paddington. The original arms had a portcullis as the charge, which now forms the crest. The origins of the City of Westminster pre-date the Norman Conquest of England, in the mid-11th Century king Edward the Confessor began the construction of an abbey at Westminster, only the foundations of which survive today. For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct, Westminster briefly became a city in 1540 when Henry VIII created the short-lived Diocese of Westminster. Following the dissolution of Westminster Abbey, a court of burgesses was formed in 1585 to govern the Westminster area, Jamess, Strand, Westminster, Pimlico, Belgravia, and Hyde Park. The Westminster Metropolitan Borough was itself the result of an amalgamation which took place in 1900. Sir John Hunt O. B. E was the First Town Clerk of the City of Westminster, the boundaries of the City of Westminster today, as well as those of the other London boroughs, have remained more or less unchanged since the Act of 1963. On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack took place on Westminster Bridge, Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard, five people - three pedestrians, one police officer, and the attacker - died as a result of the incident. More than 50 people were injured, an investigation is ongoing by the Metropolitan Police. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors, Westminster City Council is currently composed of 44 Conservative Party members and 16 Labour Party members

City of Westminster
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Coat of arms of the City of Westminster at Westminster City Hall
City of Westminster
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BP head office in St. James's, City of Westminster
City of Westminster
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The Economist Building, St James's Street
City of Westminster
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Piccadilly Circus

40.
Exhibition Road
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Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments. The road gets its name from the Great Exhibition of 1851 which was held just inside Hyde Park at the end of the road. It forms the central feature in a known as Albertopolis. The London Goethe Institute and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meeting house are located on Exhibition Road. A design competition for plans of how to improve the design to reflect its cultural importance was held in 2003 by the Royal Borough of Kensington. The project also aimed to improve the artistic and architectural merit of the streetscape, the scheme was completed ahead of the 2012 London Olympics

Exhibition Road
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Exhibition Road following opening of shared space scheme during 2012.
Exhibition Road
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Looking north prior to implementation of shared space scheme with the Science Museum in the distance
Exhibition Road
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The Natural History Museum from Exhibition Road
Exhibition Road
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The main entrance of the Science Museum on Exhibition Road

41.
Royal Horticultural Society
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The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England, as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UKs leading gardening charity and claims to be the world’s largest gardening charity, the RHS quotes its charitable purpose as The encouragement and improvement of the science, art and practice of horticulture in all its branches. The current Director General is Sue Biggs, the charity promotes horticulture through flower shows such as the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, RHS Tatton Park Flower Show and RHS Cardiff Flower Show. It also supports training for professional and amateur gardeners, the creation of a British horticultural society was suggested by John Wedgwood in 1800. The society would also award prizes for gardening achievements, Wedgwood discussed the idea with his friends, but it was four years before the first meeting, of seven men, took place, on 7 March 1804 at Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly, London. Banks proposed his friend Thomas Andrew Knight for membership, the proposal was accepted, despite Knights ongoing feud with Forsyth over a plaster for healing tree wounds which Forsyth was developing. Knight was President of the society from 1811–1838, and developed the societys aims, in 2009, more than 363,000 people were members of the society, and the number increased to more than 414,000 in 2013. Membership and fellowship of the society were previously decided by election, Fellowship may be secured through a suggested £5,000 donation each year. Members and Fellows of the Royal Horticultural Society are entitled to use the post-nominal letters MRHS and FRHS, respectively. The Royal Horticultural Societys four major gardens in England are, Wisley Garden, near Wisley in Surrey, Rosemoor Garden in Devon, Hyde Hall in Essex and Harlow Carr in Harrogate, the Societys first garden was in Kensington, from 1818–1822. In 1821 the society leased part of the Duke of Devonshires estate at Chiswick to set up an experimental garden, from 1827 the society held fêtes at the Chiswick garden, and from 1833, shows with competitive classes for flowers and vegetables. In 1861 the RHS developed a new garden at South Kensington on land leased from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, the Chiswick garden was maintained until 1903–1904, by which time Sir Thomas Hanbury had bought the garden at Wisley and presented it to the RHS. RHS Garden Wisley is thus the societys oldest garden, Rosemoor came next, presented by Lady Anne Berry in 1988. Hyde Hall was given to the RHS in 1993 by its owners Dick, Dick Robinson was also the owner of the Harry Smith Collection which was based at Hyde Hall. The most recent addition is Harlow Carr, acquired by the merger of the Northern Horticultural Society with the RHS in 2001 and it had been the Northern Horticultural Societys trial ground and display garden since they bought it in 1949. In 2013, more than 1.63 million people visited the four gardens, in 2015, the RHS announced plans for a fifth garden at Worsley New Hall, Greater Manchester, under the name RHS Garden Bridgewater. The RHS is well known for its flower shows which take place across the UK. The most famous of these shows being the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and this is followed by the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and RHS Tatton Park Flower Show in Cheshire

Royal Horticultural Society
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London flower show in Lawrence Hall
Royal Horticultural Society
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RHS logo

42.
Bethnal Green Museum
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The V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green in the East End of London is a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is the United Kingdoms national museum of applied arts. The museum was founded in 1872 as the Bethnal Green Museum, the iron structure reused a prefabricated building from Albertopolis which was replaced with some early sections of the modern V&A complex. The exterior of the building was designed by James William Wild in red brick in a Rundbogenstil style very similar to that in contemporary Germany. The building was used to display a variety of collections at different times, in the 1920s, it began to focus on services for children, and in 1974 the director of the V&A, Sir Roy Strong, defined it as a specialist museum of childhood. Of all the branches, the Bethnal Green Museum has the largest collection of objects in the United Kingdom. The mission of the museum is To enable everyone, especially the young, to explore and enjoy the world, in particular objects made for. It has extensive collections of toys, childhood equipment and costumes, the museum closed in October 2005 for the second phase of extensive renovations, costing £4.7 million. It reopened on 9 December 2006 with changes including a new front entrance, gallery, displays, inside the museum is a cast iron statue by John Bell. It came originally from the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Eagle slayer shows a marksman shooting at an eagle which has slain the lamb that lies at his feet. The museum is a Grade II listed building, anthony Burton Official website Interactive 360° virtual tour

Bethnal Green Museum
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V&A Museum of Childhood
Bethnal Green Museum
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The official opening of the Bethnal Green Museum by the Prince of Wales in 1872.

43.
West End of London
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Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross. The West End covers much of the boroughs of Westminster and Camden, while the City of London, or the Square Mile, is the main business and financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent office space and it was also close to the royal seat of power at Westminster, and is largely contained within the City of Westminster. Developed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops. The areas closest to the City around Holborn, Seven Dials, as the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as adjacent areas to the West End. According to Ed Glinerts West End Chronicles the districts falling within the West End are Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, one of the local government wards within the City of Westminster is called West End. This covers a area that defined by Glinert, Mayfair, Soho. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575, the New West End Company is a business improvement district and runs services including street cleaning and security on Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street. NWEC also runs the Red Caps service, the West End is laid out with many notable public squares and circuses, the latter being the original name for roundabouts in London. London West End Things to do General overview of what to do in the West End

44.
Ewan Christian
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Ewan Christian was a British architect. He is most notable for the restorations of Southwell Minster and Carlisle Cathedral, and he was Architect to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from 1851 to 1895. Christian was elected A RIBA in 1840, FRIBA in 1850, Ewan Christian is mostly remembered today for his design of the National Portrait Gallery in St Martins Place, London, situated just north of Trafalgar Square. However, the building, faced in Portland stone, is not typical of his work and was built towards the end of his life, being completed shortly after his death. Christian was an unexpected and controversial choice for such a commission and was appointed by the donor for the new building W. H. Alexander. He is flanked by busts of Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Babington Macaulay, the entrance frontage is modelled on the facade of the late 15th-century oratory of Santo Spirito in Bologna which Christian probably saw on one of his earlier Italian study tours. Above the doors are the Royal Arms sculpted by Frederick C. Thomas who was responsible for the busts. Christian was born in Marylebone, London, on 20 September 1814 and his father, Joseph Christian, came from an old Isle of Man family of landed gentry whose own grandfather was Thomas Christian, Rector of Crosthwaite in Cumberland. Many senior members of the family had held the post of Deemster on Man for centuries past and they lived at Milntown on the island and had also established important estates in Cumberland, particularly at Ewanrigg Hall near Maryport. Ewan is a given name in the family. The famous mutineer of HMS Bounty, Fletcher Christian, was also of the family, Ewan Christians mother was Katherine Scales of Thwaitehead in Lancashire. He was educated at Christs Hospital School from the age of nine, first at the school in Hertford then at the main school in Newgate Street. On his 15th birthday Christian was articled to the London architect Matthew Habershon, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were set up as a permanent body by the government in 1836 to administer the estates and revenues of the Church of England. In 1841 he designed his first independent building, the Marylebone Savings Bank, perhaps commissioned through local, the couple were to have four daughters - Eleanor, Anne Elizabeth, Agnes and Alice. Christian became one of the most respected and successful men in his profession and was regarded by many leading architects of the Victorian era. W. D. Davids Church at Exeter, the architects career progression is impressive. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1840, the RIBA, a prestigious national body of architects, had been formed in 1834 for the advancement of the profession and its members. During his long career Christian was a busy and productive architect producing over 2,000 works

Ewan Christian
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Ewan Christian, portrait in The Builder 21 May 1870
Ewan Christian
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The National Portrait Gallery, London, (1890–95) showing the main north front facing Charing Cross Road
Ewan Christian
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Ewan Christian first set up his own architectural practice in Bloomsbury Square in 1842. He moved across to this corner of the square in 1847 where Isaac D'Israeli had once lived.
Ewan Christian
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St. Mary's Church, Scarborough, one of Ewan Christian's first church restorations of 1848–52. He rebuilt the outer north aisle (on the left of the picture) and restored the west front (shown) to its present appearance.

45.
National Gallery, London
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The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the century to 1900. The Gallery is a charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the collection is free of charge. It is among the most visited art museums in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, after that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two-thirds of the collection. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, the present building, the third to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832 to 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, wilkinss building was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space, the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, an extension to the west by Robert Venturi, the current Director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi. The late 18th century saw the nationalisation of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe, great Britain, however, did not emulate the continental model, and the British Royal Collection remains in the sovereigns possession today. In 1777 the British government had the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, the MP John Wilkes argued for the government to buy this invaluable treasure and suggested that it be housed in a noble gallery. The twenty-five paintings from that now in the Gallery, including NG1, have arrived by a variety of routes. This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, Dulwich College, the collection opened in Britains first purpose-built public gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, in 1814. The British Institution, founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, the members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre, some resented the Institution. One of the Institutions founding members, Sir George Beaumont, Bt, in 1823 another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased John Julius Angerstein. Angerstein was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London, his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by Raphael, on 1 July 1823 George Agar Ellis, a Whig politician, proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase the collection. The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumonts offer, which came with two conditions, that the government buy Angersteins collection, and that a building was to be found

National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
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Location within Central London
National Gallery, London
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The Raising of Lazarus by Sebastiano del Piombo, from the collection of John Julius Angerstein. This became the founding collection of the National Gallery in 1824. The painting has the accession number NG1, making it officially the first painting to enter the Gallery.
National Gallery, London
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100 Pall Mall, the home of the National Gallery from 1824 to 1834.

46.
Portland stone
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Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds and it has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major public buildings in London such as St Pauls Cathedral and Buckingham Palace. It is also exported to many countries—Portland stone is used in the United Nations headquarters building in New York City, Portland stone formed in a marine environment, on the floor of a shallow, warm, sub-tropical sea probably near land. When seawater is warmed by the sun, its capacity to hold dissolved gas is reduced, calcium and bicarbonate ions within the water are then able to combine, to form calcium carbonate as a precipitate. The process of lime scale build up in a kettle in hard water areas is similar, calcium carbonate is the principal constituent of most limestones. Billions of minute crystals of precipitated calcium carbonate accumulated forming lime mud which covered the sea floor, small particles of sand or organic detritus, such as shell fragments, formed a nucleus, which became coated with layers of calcite as they were rolled around in the muddy micrite. The calcite gradually accumulated around the fragments of shell in concentric layers and this process is similar to the way in which a snowball grows in size as it is rolled around in the snow. Over time, countless billions of these balls, known as ooids or ooliths, became partially cemented together by more calcite and this is one of the reasons why Portland stone is so favoured as a monumental and architectural stone. Dr Geoff Townson conducted three years research on the Portlandian, being the first to describe the patch-reef facies. Stone has been quarried on Portland since Roman times and was being shipped to London in the 14th century, Extraction as an industry began in the early 17th century, with shipments to London for Inigo Jones Banqueting House. Wrens choice of Portland for the new St Pauls Cathedral was a great boost for the quarries, the island was connected by railway to the rest of the country from 1865. Albion Stone PLC has been quarrying and mining Portland stone since 1984, Portland Stone Firms Ltd have been quarrying Portland stone since 1994. Jordans is part of the Inmosthay Quarry in the centre of the Island, the quarry has been worked since the late 19th century. Albion Stone leases the section from The Crown Estate and purchased the northern part of the site in 2006. The majority of the southern reserves lie under the grounds of the cricket club. To avoid disturbing the site at surface level, the company has applied and received permission to extract the stone using mining rather than quarrying techniques, the reserves to the north will be quarried using the diamond bladed cutting machines, hydro bags and wire saws to shape the blocks. Albion Stone PLC now extract all their stone through mining which dramatically reduces the impact on the environment, jordans Mine is currently the biggest mine on Portland. Bowers Quarry has been operational since the late 18th century and it has been leased from The Crown Estate since 1979 and in 2002 it became the site of the first Portland stone mine by Albion Stone PLC

47.
George Scharf
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Sir George Scharf KCB was an English art critic, illustrator, and director of the National Portrait Gallery. Scharf was born at 3 St Martins Lane, London, the son of George Johann Scharf, a Bavarian miniature painter, and older brother to Henry Scharf, actor and illustrator. He was educated at University College school, and after studying under his father and obtaining medals from the Society Arts, in 1840 Sir Charles Fellows engaged Scharf to join him on his second journey to Asia Minor and on the way spent some time in Italy. Three years later he again visited Asia Minor in the capacity of draughtsman and he made drawings of views and antiquities from Lycia, Caria, and Lydia, which are now in British Museum. A selection of illustrations with text by Sir Charles Fellows was published in 1847. After his return to England, Scharf exhibited his paintings of the tombs in Myra and he also engaged largely in lecturing and teaching, and took part in the formation of the Greek, Roman and Pompeian courts at the Crystal Palace. He acted as art secretary to the great Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857, the remainder of his life was given to the care of that institution. Scharf acquired a knowledge of all matters relating to historic portraiture. In 1885, in recognition of his services to the Portrait Gallery, he was made CB, and on his resignation, early in 1895, KCB and he died in London in April 1895 after a long illness. By Sir George Scharf, Society of Antiquaries of London,1865 Historical and descriptive catalogue of the pictures, busts, works by or about George Scharf at Internet Archive

48.
Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
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Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen, known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Bt, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer, considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Joseph Duveen was British by birth, the eldest of thirteen children of Sir Joseph Joel Duveen, the Duveen Brothers firm became very successful and became involved in trading antiques. Duveen Senior died in 1908, Joseph took over the working in partnership with his late fathers brother Henry J. Duveen. He had received a thorough and stimulating education at University College School and his success is famously attributed to noticing that Europe has a great deal of art, and America has a great deal of money. He made his fortune by buying works of art from declining European aristocrats and selling them to the millionaires of the United States. Duveens clients included Henry Clay Frick, William Randolph Hearst, Henry E. Huntington, J. P. Morgan, Samuel H. Kress, Andrew Mellon, John D. Rockefeller, and a Canadian, Frank Porter Wood. The works that Duveen shipped across the Atlantic remain the core collections of many of the United States most famous museums, Duveen played an important role in selling to self-made industrialists on the notion that buying art was also buying upper-class status. Duveen quickly became wealthy, and made many philanthropic donations. He gave paintings to many British galleries and he donated considerable sums to repair and expand several galleries, amongst other things he built the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum to house the Elgin Marbles and a major extension to the Tate Gallery. Duveen married Elsie, daughter of Gustav Salomon, of New York and they had one daughter, Dorothy Rose. She married, firstly, Sir William Francis Cuthbert Garthwaite, DSC 2nd Bt. on 23 July 1931, orthopædic Surgeon to St. Georges Hospital, of Upper Wimpole Street, London. The court case took seven years to come to trial and after the first jury returned a verdict, Duveen agreed to settle. In recent years, Duveens reputation has suffered considerably, restorers working under his guidance damaged Old Master panel paintings by scraping off old varnish and giving the paintings a glossy finish. He was also responsible for the damaging restoration work done to the Elgin Marbles. A number of the paintings he sold have turned out to be fakes, Duveen greatly increased the trade in bringing great works of art from Europe to America. He eventually became the art dealer, through planning and his insight into human behavior. If a great painting came onto the market he had to have it no matter what and he always outbid the opposition and eventually acquired the finest collections. He went to lengths to purchase great works of art and his network went well beyond American millionaires, English Royalty

Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
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Joseph Duveen in the 1920s
Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
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The Elgin Marbles on display in the Duveen Gallery of the British Museum
Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
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La belle ferronnière, by Leonardo da Vinci; the authenticity of another version of this painting was questioned by Duveen.
Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank
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The oldest Western panel portrait of a woman, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Photographs prove Duveen significantly altered the hair and headdress to make it look like a Pisanello of the 1440s. [citation needed] It is now catalogued as by an unknown "Franco-Flemish Master" of about 1410.

49.
Richard Allison (architect)
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Sir Richard John Allison was a Scottish architect. From 1889 he was associated with the government Office of Works in London, < The Science Museum, London The Duveen wing, National Portrait Gallery, London, with J G West. The Geological Museum, London The Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast, the British Ambassadors house in Diplomatstaden, Stockholm